“Oh?”

  The man leaned forward in the shadows, the red of his hair molten under the candlelight.

  “Ufufufu, indeed. The battle was so dull, but she was so curious,” Agatha nodded.

  The man exhaled.

  “Agatha,” he said wearily.

  “Lance,” she nodded.

  “Would it kill you to use my title every once in a while?”

  “No, but that doesn’t mean I will,” Agatha cackled.

  Lance exhaled, the Dragonite behind him shifting in the shadows.

  “I presume there is a point to this story?”

  “Of course! You should have seen her! And then she tried to be sneaky. Bah! As if a little ghost could escape the notice of my Graveward!”

  “Agatha… “

  Agatha finished her rant and looked up.

  “Why are you telling me about a Gastly?”

  “Because it is important, you obtuse hatchling,” she snapped.

  The Dragonite growled.

  “Oh hush you,” she waved the growl off. “I knew you when you were a Dratini, long before your little trainer was even a thought in his parent’s minds.”

  Dragonite stepped forward, but Lance reached out a hand to rest on her side and inhaled through his mouth and out through the nose, cycling the calming mantra of the DragonMasters.

  He felt Dragonite do the same next to him.

  “Apart from you and maybe the head of my clan, no one would dare address me as such,” he reminded her.

  “Well, don’t behave like a child and I won’t have to treat you like one, Champion.”

  “Why must you irk me so, Agatha? You know you are invaluable, do I need to say it each time we meet? Would that please you?”

  “Yes it would,” Agatha nodded. “You may do so.”

  Lance stared, his Dragonite exhaling in surprise next to him.

  “If you didn’t have an ego the size of a Dragon, I wouldn’t be able to irk you near as much you know,” she continued, waggling a finger at him.

  From her shadow she felt Gengi cackle.

  “Agatha!” The Champion snapped, finally losing his cool.

  “There he is,” she smiled. “The battle with the Rocket was ultimately pointless. They grow bold, but accomplish nothing.”

  “Meaning they are seeking to distract us,” he nodded.

  “Yes. Of this, there is no doubt,” she nodded. “They may be criminals, but they are not stupid. My Graveward has yet to pry their plans from the shadows. Most irritating.”

  “But why. Why are they suddenly active? What are we missing?” Lance mused.

  Agatha stood silently, crouched over her cane, the silence stretching on.

  Finally, Lance sighed.

  “Why is the Gastly important, Agatha,” he sighed, rubbing his temple.

  “Why, I thought you would never ask!” she cackled.

  Lance felt Dragonite prepare her Hyper Beam. He was loathe to admit it, but it drew a chuckle from him.

  Which was apparently her plan, as she let it dissipate soon after.

  “The Gastly is important because of a hunch,” she grinned proudly.

  Lance deflated. This woman was absolutely insufferable.

  She was also the greatest Spymaster on Johto.

  He schooled his face.

  “A hunch?”

  “Yes,” she nodded, turning and heading towards the exit, her cane clacking.

  “My hunches are rarely wrong, young DragonMaster,” she called into the dark, falling into the shadows.

  Lance sat alone, staring into the candlelight.

  Things were happening in the shadows.

  Lance did not like shadows.

  He was a DragonMaster. He crushed problems in the light of day.

  As it should be.

  Whatever Team Rocket had planned was tiresome, yet couldn’t be ignored.

  “Well, Agoni,” he exhaled, resting a hand against her flank. “I think it’s time to make that call.”

  Dragonite huffed softly beside him, heading back to her dias to rest.

  ____

  Shadow drifted aimlessly, having been dismissed from the shrine by the Hallow-winds.

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  A small Pidgey slept in a tree. Shadow regarded it for a moment before using Dream Eater.

  Trees. Sunlight. Flight. Freedom.

  She caught glimpses of the dream. Almost felt the emotion.

  Almost. Not quite.

  She sighed and drifted on. She could see why the move would be addictive to ghosts.

  Yet the dream was empty. Hollow.

  The namesake of her evolution made so much more sense now.

  To reach it, she would need to haunt a child.

  Discover what it loved.

  Make it dream of it.

  Steal it.

  Now that she knew the move, she could feel everything in her urging her to do it.

  “Why,” she whispered. “Why is giving up everything I’ve come to cherish the only way?”

  She wanted to drift into the forest.

  Drift forward and never stop.

  Yet she also didn’t.

  Her MunchMunch and her Teddy waited for her. Even that irritating baby Fairy, whom she caught watching her more and more often lately.

  She looked up to find herself outside the Poké Center, the Guardian Gengar eyeing her curiously.

  Shame hit her like a wave.

  She left as a Gastly. She returned as a Gastly.

  Then Gengar floated back into the wall, granting her passage into his domain.

  A Ghost showing kindness.

  Maybe she wasn’t the only one.

  Gastly drifted home. To her team.

  ____

  “Munch.”

  MunchMunch scratched his tummy and sat up, the sunlight from the window warming his ears.

  He had been dreaming about chocolate. And pie.

  Now he wanted to see if there were chocolate pies?

  “Pii~”

  MunchMunch looked down and froze.

  Happy was there, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes but her tiny arms were too short.

  “Munch?”

  He quickly looked around and saw his Teddy sleeping on the bed and his Shadow watching in the corner.

  He waved to her and she smiled back.

  “Munch!”

  So yesterday wasn’t a dream! They had found their Happy and Teddy!

  He reached down to pick up Happy, who had fallen on the floor when he sat up and was looking none too happy about it.

  “Good Morning, Happy,” he giggled, wrapping her in a hug.

  All of her annoyance disappeared in an instant.

  “Pii~!” she chimed out.

  He was so happy, he could just sing!

  So he did!

  He skipped in circles holding his Happy and sang to her!

  “Munch. Munch Munch Munch. MUNCH MUNCH MUUUUNCH. Unch Munch~”

  “Sweetie, you have a lovely voice,” Shadow cackled, looking over at Teddy who had been startled from his sleep.

  He was sitting on the edge of his bed, hair in every direction looking very confused.

  Each note from MunchMunch seemed to knock him further off guard.

  “Oh!” MunchMunch cried, skipping up to his Teddy.

  He went a bit too fast, so he crashed into the bed.

  Since he was so big and strong, the bed scooted across the floor with his Teddy on it!

  “Mama, do you think I could try that? I wanna slide, too!” he exclaimed as his Teddy made the sound he loved the most.

  He had learned it was called laughter.

  MunchMunch liked that word.

  “Hmm, I’ve heard of a cave where everything is ice,” Gastly said thoughtfully. “I can’t wait to see it with you.”

  “What’s ice?”

  “Pii~!”

  MunchMunch looked down to see Happy grasping at him with her tiny paws.

  “Oh! I saved some for you!” MunchMunch shouted, skipping back to his backpack.

  “I saved all the face-scrunch berries!”

  As he was digging through his bag, he also found the Mint berry. He had forgotten about that one!

  “Here, Happy!” he beamed, setting it down in front of here.

  Togepi looked at it curiously.

  Then she sniffed it.

  Then she blinked.

  Then she chimed, giggled, and threw herself at it — hugging and eating it with gusto.

  “MunchMunch!”

  Munchlax glanced over to where his Teddy was sitting on the floor. He had something he had never seen before in his hand.

  “Munch?”

  His Teddy gestured for him to come over, so MunchMunch did.

  Except he was really happy and excited, so he rolled instead!

  His Teddy made MunchMunch’s favorite sound again.

  Then he started pulling the leaves and sticks from MunchMunch’s fur.

  MunchMunch didn’t know why he was doing that. He had collected them while he was growing strong!

  Well, not really collected. They had joined him when they saw how strong he was, especially when he rolled over things.

  Then his Teddy put the thing that was in his hand on MunchMunch’s head and pulled it.

  MunchMunch immediately collapsed.

  “Muuuuuuuuunch,” he sighed. “Maaaamaa… what is thaaaat,” he cooed.

  Shadow floated over and inspected what Teddy was doing.

  “That is called a brush, Sweetie. Trainers use them to make their Pokémon look nice.”

  MunchMunch melted into the floor.

  “Maaamaaa,” he sighed. “I love brushes the most.”

  And then he was asleep.

  ____

  “Yes Mum, everything is alright,” Teddy smiled into his phone.

  His Munchlax snored loudly as he continued to brush his tummy.

  “What is that sound?” his mother asked through the phone.

  “My Munchlax likes being brushed apparently,” he laughed. “He passed out immediately.”

  He was met with silence.

  “Mum?”

  “My baby boy is growing up,” she whispered. “You and those stupid hats, I never thought I’d hear the day when my boy held a brush,” she gushed.

  Teddy felt his ears burning as he looked up into a mirror, where his bed head stared back.

  “And now he is taking care of his Pokémon!”

  “Muuuum,” he groaned, grateful Shadow couldn’t understand.

  She was in the corner cackling anyway, obviously enjoying his embarrassment secondhand.

  “Sooo, how did you find out what kind of brush he likes? That’s very important you know. There was a study made — “

  Teddy smiled and listened as his mum got lost on her academical tangent.

  He missed her a lot.

  “Hey Mum,” he said suddenly, “I’ll call you when I’m done with Ecruteak? So you have time to get to Olivine for our vacation?”

  She paused, then resumed gushing even more enthusiastically.

  “Oh, I can’t wait to see you! Oak called the other day, but I told him it would have to wait until after I got to see you!”

  Teddy rolled his eyes. Most people wouldn’t dare turn down the former Champion.

  His mother had him wait while she prepared for vacation.

  He loved her so much.

  “So, how long ago did you find out he liked being brushed? Don’t avoid the question — I know what you did, trying to distract me young man.”

  Teddy scratched his head.

  “Uhh… well the Nurse Joy in Ecruteak handed me the brush on our way in last night. She kind of looked like you when you told me to brush my hair, honestly,” he chuckled abashed.

  Silence.

  “How long have you had your Munchlax for? And this is the first time you are brushing him?”

  She sighed.

  “Well, it’s progress at least.”

  MunchMunch woke up at that moment and smiled at him, before rolling over so Teddy could brush his back.

  He was asleep instantly.

  “Yeah,” Teddy laughed, “He really, really likes being brushed. Also… I forgot the fur on his chest wasn’t supposed to be brown…”

  “Teddy!”

  “I know, I know,” he said.

  “Every day young man. Just like I had to brush your hair when you wouldn’t. You brush that Munchlax. Every. Single. Day.”

  Teddy watched as his Munchlax giggled in his sleep, kicking his foot-paw when he brushed him just right.

  “Yeah, that won’t be hard,” he smiled through the phone.

  “You sound like you love your Pokémon a lot.”

  Teddy’s heart clenched for a moment when he thought about how he had lost them.

  But they were here now, and that is what mattered.

  “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

  “I’m glad. That bond? That will carry you through when nothing else will. In fact, Elm had a paper about — “

  ____

  Shadow watched as MunchMunch woke up and toppled the fairy to the floor.

  She watched as he picked her up and cradled her like a doll.

  She watched as her Trainer woke up, lambasted by MunchMunch’s singing.

  She watched as he smiled.

  She caught herself mirroring his smile.

  She watched as her trainer spoke with his Mother over the hand-held transmitter he carried with him.

  Watched as he laughed, blushed and side-eyed her, hoping she didn’t understand.

  She didn’t, but she knew embarrassment when she saw it.

  She made sure to cackle and enjoyed watching him blush harder.

  She watched as MunchMunch cooed and giggled in his sleep, kicking his hand and foot paws when the brush hit just right.

  She would find a way to get stronger. Nothing would stop her.

  But this?

  This was worth it.